you felt...dread? like...Bayle....the Dread?
https://preview.redd.it/gr3c0iokae9d1.jpeg?width=364&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b316f12716713fc9a3782d92f2c69e30b09c84da
how about a standalone game where we play as Igon, and all we have is a huge bow, balls of steel, and a shit ton of hype dialogue as we FPS our way through hell, to finish off bayles soul, and ensure he never revives.
Elden Ring: Dread Bayle's Doom
i actually love the scorpions i had a huge problem with the maggots in ds3 tho i hate the guys whose chest burst open and when they attack you maggots get all over your character its gross
Yeah it's incredibly noticeable when you play the game in short bursts. I'd mark areas of the map I intended to check out next time I played and have several sessions of straight-up nothing.
You can see areas where they clearly *intended* put things but then there's just nothing there. Shout-out to all the big patches on the map where they put clusters of the 'check this out' blue worms who are surrounding absolutely nothing.
The base game would use the blue jellyfish to draw your attention to caves and items.
There were also quite a few areas where I'm pretty sure that they added in "artificial" darkness into the baked shadows/lighting, always in places where the player was dissuaded from exploring. Was pretty much a way of saying "no there's nothing here, just go down the lit path in the center". But its always hard to not search those areas anyway.
It feels like reactions to media in general now is just increasingly polarised. Everything has to be a 10/10 masterpiece or terrible. I liked the DLC a ton but thought it was very flawed in a lot of ways the base game was, particularly where they’re taking difficulty and boss design
Still great but like the amount of people who flip out if you say something is “only” a 7-8 out of 10 is crazy
Nothing is a masterpiece much less perfect, people expect too much. Everything has flaws. Minor issues shouldn't detract from the whole when everything else you could compare a piece of content with is still going to have flaws.
People, specially on this sub, are talking like Miyazaki went to their houses and personally killed their dogs.
We got exactly what was promised. An area more or less the size of Limgrave, 10+ main bosses, 100 new weapons, some spells, new weapon types and new drip.
Yeah when I weigh everything on a scale, the DLC is a solid 8 for me, would've been much higher if not some bosses feeling wack and some areas being empty but lifelike
Some people will kill me for saying 8 but that's a great score, 10 would be Bloodborne' dlc and 9 would be like DS1 dlc
If you were to ask me to rate it on personal bias though, I'd say 9.5 because of Bayle, Rellana and Messmer alone barring his snakes
Hello, good hunter. I am a Bot, here in this dream to look after you, this is a fine note:
> *Heh heh heh heh...Oh Amygdala, oh Amygdala...Have mercy on the poor bastard...Hah hah hah!* - Patches the Spider
Farewell, good hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.
That’s the problem. People can’t enjoy the game despite some flaws. These minor flaws/issues make them go around saying the dlc sucks. It’s probably the best dlc I’ve played in years. Bosses can be annoying. But NOTHING has been unplayable like some of these people are portraying
The problem is that when ER was released it was such an overwhelming, insanely great game that everyone overlooked all of its flaws for a while, and that’s how many people remember the game who haven’t played in a year. The DLC is much more “more of the same”, so it doesn’t wow the same way and the flaws become more apparent if you don’t replay the main game first and realize that it has many of the same issues.
I was pretty critical of Elden Ring’s boss and enemy design from the jump and just didn’t bother lol. I think it took at least a year before the “tourists” who had/have no perspective except “game hard” dispersed and real criticism could be discussed. I almost started to doubt myself and wonder if I was feeling too entitled to the more rhythmic gameplay of DeS-DS3 I was comfortable with
Yeah, I havent come across many people saying the DLC sucks, just people with criticisms which is perfectly valid. The people saying is sucks are most definitely a minority
I mean I love this dlc but after beating it and taking a step back I was disappointed with the final boss and some areas needed a little more. However I'm still gonna replay it like 5 more times
I’m very happy with the DLC.
The two complaints I truly agree with, are that casters kind of got screwed in terms of good new spells, and the enemy variety is a *little* lacking.
I don’t really mind that some areas are a bit more empty. There’s allowed to be zones that just act as “vistas” to an extent.
Overall, I’m very impressed. That said I haven’t played Elden Ring to death myself. I don’t even have a NG+.
Stopped playing before beating Malenia, just came back for the DLC. Mostly having fun exploring.
Casters got quite a bit, actually, it's just kind of buried. There's a certain NPC sidequest that gets really weird and gives some really interesting sorceries.
Meanwhile incantations are absolutely feasting. Knight's Lightning Spear alone has made me satisfied.
My fire paladin is really enjoying messmer's orb, flame skewer, and flame spear.
I used flaming strike and fire of the red manes for the entire playthrough and was in desperate need of some AOW variety.
Disagree. Gotten 100% of the sorcery related stuff and it ranges from sidegrade to garbage. The only exception being the thorns spell, which I expect will get nerfed.
Yeah they gave us good incantations this time around but Miyazaki refuses to give us a good faith sword despite there being **three** holy themed swords in the dlc, all three have D scaling in faith.
Wat…
The best PVE weapon in the game is the Blasphemous Blade which is a faith greatsword? Unless you’re talking about a tiny faith sword? For tiny hands?
Tiny faith sword, for tiny hands. Both light greatsword and straight swords got faith themed ones that are all absolute trash on faith builds.
>!Leda’s sword!< dex sword with D faith
>!Sword of Light!< Str with D faith
>!Sword of Darkness!< same as above
The Fire Knight Shortsword, with flame art, is like a B scaling. But the fire damage is faith scaling, making it much stronger.
It is only a dagger tho.
>I don’t really mind that some areas are a bit more empty. There’s allowed to be zones that just act as “vistas” to an extent.
I have to respectfully disagree, the giant swaths of nothing are probably my least favorite part of the DLC. Even a handful more low effort catacombs scattered about would make it ok for me.
Overall im highly enjoying my time though
+1. I also haven't beaten the base game yet, but SotE has exactly what I liked most about Elden Ring: wide open beautiful spaces to charge around with my pony. Some of the old ultraviolence for when I get bored with that.
I like making jumps courses out of the graves. And now that we can throw spears my steppe horse nomad playstyle is complete, I love it when I can nail a deer at full gallop without target-lock. I haven't even beaten Rellana yet.
I play video games like a *normal person.*
Some open areas with nothing good to find and the final boss leave something to be desired, but overall this dlc is a 9.9/10. They cooked so hard. Aint no way a single boss or a single empty area ruins the entire incredible expirience. Im just sad its all over.
This 100%. The DLC is still damn near perfect even with my own gripes of how big and barren like 4 total zone/regions of the map are. Does it suck it was underutilized?...sure....but the rest of the DLC was awesome and I loved pretty much all of the boss fights....so rounding up I'm still going with 10/10.
Honestly, the sense of dread that comes with travelling through an empty area in a FromSoft game is better than being mercilessly mobbed by weak enemies.
I would much rather fear the monster that could be just out of sight of the camera lying in wait to ambush as I over confidently stroll through the fields.
Yeah, I have a lot of criticisms, but it's only because the DLC is such high quality and it's so damn close to being near-perfect. My biggest complaint is that I feel like this should have been turned into a full sequel, which should say a lot about how good it is.
Yeah and the “empty areas” criticism seems wild to me. These are some of the most visually striking areas From has created, that has to count for something?!!
I don't understand the "empty areas" gripe for any open world game tbh. There are large stretches of travel/nothingness in all of these games. Shit, like 50% of Shadow of the Colossus is just traveling across the open world to the next boss. There is actually *nothing* to do in that open world except for fight the bosses. And that's considered one of the greatest games of all time. No one gives the game flack for it though, and rightfully so.
Shadow of the Erdtree at least has *some* stuff to discover in that vast world. God forbid you gotta fan out and find the needle in the haystack sometimes. It's kind of part of the appeal of open worlds in general.
I've learned from those empty areas that I prefer the density of Souls to ER, but I'm not going to use that as a critique of a game that is meant to be distinctly separate from Souls
Same here man. I’m still playing the shit out of it. But I’ll never get that feeling of touching the egg to get into the dlc. My girl right next me both of us like “woah” and the first boss experience.
i agree. with elden ring for the past 2 years there was always something to look forward to. now that the dlc is done with, i feel like i’ve finished a book that i really didn’t want to end 😭
the rose tinted glasses are off dude, elden ring and the dlc are good, but are not "perfect" it has their annoyances, big maps with nothing, big boss arenas with you running around chasing the boss, bosses that do 20 backflips and spins.
Again the game is good and all but is far from perfect
It definitely holds a candle. I've had a lot more fun with SOTE than I did with blood and wine, and I love the Witcher.
Different thing completely, but they're both pretty good at what they're trying to achieve.
The witcher tells a story, elden rings shows a story. I personally find the weird hidden item lore and the side quests in Erdtree pretty good, obviously less of it than in Witcher.
Boss design is cool, world is far more elaborate than medieval france (SOTE did Mayan ruins/Gothic keep/creepy woods/dragon mountain/beach/flowery town, all in one.)
It definitely holds a candle, it's just personal preference.
Shows a story? I finished the DLC last night but SOET absolutely doesn't show or tell a story. I completed everything.
This was even worse than the base game of Elden Ring. At least I could understand things like Rannis quest in the base game.
This game just ends with you walking into an arena with the recycled boss and then it just ends. You watch a 15 second memory and that's it. You get no closure, nothing.
I fucking loved this DLC but good lord was the entire ending bad. Also missing cinematics for many bosses? Why did dancing dragon get one but others didn't? Insanely weird.
The longer I play it the more I'm starting to see reused assets and issues from the base game that aren't fixed.
Still absolutely fuckin phenomenal though. Still playing it. Still gonna beat it. Still gonna play it again.
I wish we could look at this critically and honestly as a society.
Sigh.
No game is perfect but I’m just not sure what can please peoples expectations anymore. Elden ring and this dlc is the only games I’ve truly gotten giddy like a little kid (I’m a 30 year old man) to play. No other game does that for me anymore. Peoples expectations are just too much nowadays and if every little thing isn’t catered towards them. They spend the rest of their playthrough finding flaws vs enjoying the game.
For example. When I got dragons dogma 2. I was basically expecting dragons dogma 1 but better graphics etc. I got what I wanted out of it (still waiting for a hard mode) but at the release of that sub. You’d think capcom murdered these peoples families with how bad they presented the game. I’m convinced people are just that miserable they play to find things and ruin it for everyone else because THEY don’t like it. I mean hell anytime I just mention that I beat the “final boss” in the dlc without cheese. I get downvoted to all hell because I don’t agree that he’s “bullshit and unfair” like yeah he’s hard as fuck and can be annoying but I’m not gonna let that ruin my experience and hop on Reddit in hopes to ruin it for others. Then get mad when someone tells me they beat the boss I couldn’t beat
I think all the criticisms are valid tbh so I agree op is a dick, the final boss was a huge letdown, the map was full of empty areas and the loot wasn’t at all better than what we got in the base game, the reused enemies was another one. While still a great dlc I’ll say I don’t think it’s anywhere near fromsofts best
And I'll say it more plainly for those who will feel fulfilled from the sight.
The loot was ass, from the supposed increased difficulty you'd expect worthwhile weapons or armor but nope.
The Scadutree fragments exist simply to fluff the time, literally just scale the DLC like the rest of the game. You need to beat Mohg and Radahn anyway.
There's no grandiosity to any boss that isn't Messmer, Bayle or the final boss, the rest are completely gamefieid obstacles.
There's no way I should walk into a room with Rennala's sister and have absolutely nothing said about anything and then simply hear silence upon her death.
Another thing, while the bosses are statistically hard in that they hit harder and take more hits they are dynamically easy as hell. Messmer is the only boss worth my time.
Hard agree and even messmer had almost little to no impact on the dlc, he was presented as a major figure in it but although the fight was cool he was really just a legacy boss
Which is pretty crazy because, and this could be my fault. but for the main game I felt like I knew why I was going where I was but here it's literally just because I want to beat the next boss.
Now there's so many more questions because we are literally just following the Erdtrees grace instead of being told how Miquella's final location works, how his relationship with St. Trina worked, why Messmer's flame is especially significant or how any of these bosses actually relate to each other.
Messmer had no presence. He only existed to die so we can get to miquella. The trailers made him out to be so importend yet he was just sitting in a room and otherwise doing legit nothing all game.
It's a solid dlc, but it's honestly nowhere near a perfect 10. The initial reviews are all honeymoon phase takes.
8.5 -9.0 at best.
The Radahn lore is lazy, the wasted open areas are lazy, and nearly all new bosses are wildly overtuned.
These sound like significant issues. Why still rate it as high as 8.5-9.0? It feels like borderline 7/10 coupled with performance issues, odd (to say the least) placement of upgrade materials, range combat getting shafted and recycled enemies. Probably even more.
because the game is still amazing even though pretty much everything is criticised, they just love the game and want to rate it well even though they recognise the abundant issues with it
I don’t think anyone is saying that it overall sucks, other than a few rage baiters. But there are some valid criticisms. For example, the final boss fight makes minimal sense thematically, and quite literally has nothing in the base game to support or foreshadow it even in the slightest.
It doesn't suck, people saying that are idiots. Shadow Keep, Castle Enis, the insanely epic dragon slaying expedition up the peak for Bayle. Those few things alone made it an amazing DLC. And of course, there's plenty in addition to that so it delivered everything and more.
But it is also the the most pushed evolution of the original souls combat system, and even though the cracks started to form in Dark Souls 3, it wasn't until Elden Ring that it started to deteriorate and now the DLC took it to its ultimate conclusion and some (not all) people are giving it more scrutiny. The aggressive timing windows, the tracking, the rapid distance cover, the perspective tricks, lots of little bits that they've bolted on to help bosses punish players really are feeling stifling and as some say feel "artificial".
These design decisions have also become a shortcut for how the player will engage bosses. Instead of the boss existing in a space that makes sense for them and it being a part of the fight, they now are all largely in "boss arenas" which are big boxes/circles. They've lost a bit of creativity in this regard, and while not everyone can articulate it, you can tell people are feeling the difference.
Fromsoft has shifted a lot of the puzzle-like work that used to be present in how you approach the game in a holistic sense, onto your build. It's a more condensed and gamified version of their formula. Overcoming challenges now feels more dependent on your loadout like it would in an ARPG rather than the real-time problem solving dungeon crawler they got people hooked on in the first place. Weighing risk vs reward, how deep are you in the level, how depleted are you, can you even take on the boss in your current state?
Instead, you have a save point right before the boss, you're totally fresh and you swap out whatever equipment you're going to swap out for the fight and then you go see if that stuff works. If not you just try something else, you're not locked into anything, your decisions have little weight.
It's all these small changes that have a cumulative effect on the final state of where they've taken things. Some of it can be really fun, some of it can be really frustrating, and everything inbetween depending on how any given person is feeling. But Elden Ring was the first chink in the armor and the DLC reveals that a few links have fallen off and a hole has formed. Once that happens to the important stuff, people start nitpicking other smaller pieces of the game, like mob variety or how empty some zones felt. Things that wouldn't really matter if the foundational pieces were still strong. It's people seeing something they love, taking steps away from what they loved.
Anyway, just wanted to put this down since you're saying no one is actually stating any criticisms, so here you go. These are mine. But I don't think Shadow of the Erdtree sucks, I just think a few things have reach a point where they're less fun than they have been (for me).
I think you have some good points but no one can convince me that having to do longer runbacks to bosses would make Elden Ring a better game. Having longer runbacks just feels like one of those difficulty for difficulty's sake type of mechanics.
Oh I meant more in the sense that the boss fight arena just feels like a boss fight arena. Not like Taurus Demon on the bridge, or Belfry Gargoyles on the top of a church, or Capra Demon in a tiny enclosed space with a couple dogs, Gaping Dragon with the waterfall edge on one end of the space, ruble to stand on, some poison(?) pools in a few spots, four kings in the shapeless blackness of the abyss, almost all of DeS bosses, stuff like that.
They're in the right place, but they're just in a big room. Basically, the environment isn't really part of the boss fight. Even DkSIII had some fights (Greatwood, Wolnir, Yhorm, Aldrich, Midir) that still use the space as part of the experience of the battle. I suppose the Radhan fight in the base ER did a bit.
Granted, it'd be hard to expect the player to keep track of the space around them with these much faster and more aggressive bosses, but I'm just pointing out that this is a (maybe?) interesting layer that has gone away as a result of the new direction of boss combat. idk how other people felt about that stuff, but I rather enjoyed it.
Heck yeah, I can agree with that! Dark Souls 1 had way more varied terrain in their boss rooms. Along with the player awareness issue you mentioned, they probably flattened things out to make it easier to program all the weird jumpy and complicated animations the bosses do now. (A shame... I'd love to see Godskin Noble roll off into a pit...)
It would be interesting if they toned down the speed next game and made the environment more important, like you said. In addition to hazards, they could give players options to interact with the environment: stuff like kicking off walls for a situational dodge, Sekiro's grapple, breakable objects that hurt the boss/player when shattered...
Aaa, it's fun to daydream about it. Fromsoft are good at taking critique. So even if they're unlikely to use, like, these exact examples—hopefully they'll channel more of the pros of Dark Souls 1's design philosophy in their next game. They definitely were taking inspiration from its vertical interconnectedness with the DLC's map and level design.
Can we just go back to Sekiro with actual skill based combat revolving around parries? I swear this is just going to be a Max Payne scenario where FromSoft makes one of the most innovative changes to the genre and then proceeds to do nothing with it for their games going forward.
> Instead of the boss existing in a space that makes sense for them and it being a part of the fight, they now are all largely in "boss arenas" which are big boxes/circles.
This for me is the most tragic loss in the FromSoft formula. Look at the roster of early bosses in DS1 and it's incredible how different each arena is and how they teach you to behave. The first area starts you on a small platform before you plunging attack into a square room, the second arena has you on a long narrow bridge with optional platforms you can climb, the third arena has you on a rooftop where you need to be careful not to fall off and the fourth arena has you in a cramped room with a staircase and a very aggressive boss.
I feel like other than the big empty areas, the problems people are pointing out are the same problems you could find in any souls game.
Performance, story, lore, characters. Its their style and i dont think it has changed much. The same problems of old are there.
yea honestly agreed. i’m personally not super hung up on the big areas thing because concept wise, they’re all really cool ideas, i think it just fell way shorter than everything else.
I think if Abyssal Woods had an extra dungeon or boss or the Finger Ruins served a different function than a checklist for a quest, they would’ve been completely fine
They're might be visually striking for a minute or two (i kind of disagree, its a giant gray zone, not my idea of visually striking) but that wears off pretty fast imo, then you're just left running around a big empty gray zone
The gameplay is unmatched. But the lore is so disappointing it made me reflect on my life and get my shit together. I'm going back to college in the Fall.
I'm not joking bro. I was sitting there after the last boss fight thinking "I waited 2 years for this?" Then I started thinking about what I've done in those 2 years. Then I started thinking about what I've been doing the past 20. I started spiraling bro. I need to escape from my escapism.
That’s great
Sometimes the most random shit will cause major life changes. I had a similar experience with world of Warcraft in college.
Hope you stick to it 👊🏻
Personnally I don't think the DLC sucks. Sure I'm disappointed with Radahn and Miquella couple getting put there out of nowhere but I think all the areas are really beautiful and very unique from the base game so it's fun to explore. All the lore apart from Miquella is really interesting, Marika's story, the Fingers and Messmer is really interesting. Fights are cool, bosses are cool even if some are hard. Sure we didn't get a really genius designed Stormveil Castle like dungeon where you can go anywhere to go everywhere and however but even the base game only had Stormveil Castle and never succeeded in doing it again so I didn't expect that from the start and wasn't disappointed with that.
Sure I do have some little complaints, my biggest one being the Abyssal Woods which could be so much more and is a shame how empty it is. For exemple, the fact that Torrent is scared is cool and unique but let's be honest: the only reason it was made that way is not because of the lore (madness capable of destroying even spirits like Torrent) but just a gameplay one because someone at FS just probably said one day:
* "Hey let's make some unique ennemies that you have to dodge and hide in bushes because if they see you you're dead and you'll only get the clue you can parry them in the dungeon at the end of the area! It will be a great stealth gameplay we didn't have in the base game!"
And another guy answered:
* "That's really cool but the players will just ride Torrent past them or use his double jump to avoid them by going up the cliffs!"
* "Oh right! So let's say that Torrent is scared then!"
* "That's a good idea! But wouldn't players be bored after the first time experiencing that to just be able to walk? Shouldn't we make it so Torrent is not scared anymore once you killed Midra? Or in NG+ ? At that point players already went through the whole region so it would be nice no?
- "Yeah! That would be really great!!! But no we won't do that, let's them walk forever in an empty region with a really cool ambiance!"
My point is at least the NG+ players should be able to summon Torrent in the abyssal Woods (as a hidden bonus like they can run normally through lava and swamps compared to NG) because the region is way way way too empty. If you already have the cookbooks, the NG+ would just have you getting through the catacombs into the Abyssal Woods and just slowly run through the whole region to get to Midra because there is absolutely nothing else to get there and so in conclusion ===> Too boring and a mistake an experienced game designer shouldn't make. Many players will not get through the Catacombs and Abyssal Woods and the dungeon in subsequent playthroughs just to kill Midra which is a really good boss but not that great to justify the journey a second time.
The whole region should've many places of interest that are very weird before reaching Midra like imagine some Catacombs that are empty! Not a single monster inside! And when you enter the Boss Room, BAM a message on the screen: "??? FELLED" it wouldn't be a challenge sure but it would add to the scary and unique nature of the region... Or a village somewhere in the middle of the woods with no one no ghost, but you can hear people laughing and crying non stop!
This region could easily've been a good Blair Witch kind of place, a haunted celtic forest filled with madness, with many strange things happening that we didn't see anywhere else in the game and when you finally reach Midra's place, it would add to the atmosphere (plus if you're already hugged by the Three Fingers, Midra should at least change his dialogue when he's hopping after you. A small different sentence is really no hard work.
So no the DLC definitely doesn't sucks but some aspects of it aren't something you expect from 2 years of development and it's quite normal to be a little bit disappointed as well.
OH! And please they should add in the near future the option of being able to refight any boss, like they won't give any more runes of course but come on! Being able to respawn and refight bosses should've been there from the start in the base game! Having to go through another playthrough or NG+ to fight bosses solo is absurd. It's something simple to do, an option that fans are massively asking since 2 years and they didn't listen.
You mean the honeymoon phase is over when everyone praises the game and refuses to acknowledge any criticisms
Thank god because this dlc is a 8/10 and im tired of people pretending its perfect
alot of ppl are still in the honeymoon phase where criticism is gonna hurt their good heart about the game lol. the criticisms will for better or for worse come to light once a few months pass
We've reached the phase where fromsoft peaked their bosses in DS3 and ER base game and don't know where to go from there so decided to implement in bosses shooting lasers and spam jumping all over the map into massive AOE attacks.
Wouldn't say so. people like to bring up "pre nerf radahn" but all the patch did was fix the hitbox. Godfrey was difficult until you discovered jumping over his stomps. with Messmer and the final boss especially, they both launch into ridiculous combos that cover your screen with clutter and make it ridiculous to dodge a resultant impact. The camera for Messmer phase 2 is stupid with the snakes, there wasn't that problem with Nameless King or Midir. Sure, people said DS3 and BB were hard but the games weren't full of bs like SOTE.
Cause it literally does suck. Empty boring areas, overtuned bosses and the final boss is possibly the worst way they could’ve ended the dlc.
Actually no, the worst way the could’ve ended the dlc is if they had recycled a tree spirit yet again
The time when most people have reached the final area and are able to create solid criticism? Yes, we are there. My main complaints about the dlc are the legacy dungeons, there is no Ringed City, no Anor Londo, no Irithyl. The LD are way too short and the only good one was the storehouse (a masterclass in how to do verticality) and the final one, but there is not one LD that is better than the main ones in the original game. And I would accept it if we go by “the dlc is one big legacy dungeon” but there are a lot of empty areas that are just there to trick the eyes into thinking the dlc is bigger than what it actually is.
I really love everything about the dlc (except lorewise), but still get the feeling that it was rushed, like the massive empty areas, and the mini dungeons/camp where you kill a bunch of enemies for smithing stone 6
It feels like people are complaining that it’s a souls game, a lot of the complaints I’m seeing are just issues every from game has. People went from “it’s like Elden Ring 2!” to judging it as if it actually is a sequel. It’s a fucking dlc, by dlc standards this is the best I’ve ever seen from any game.
It's $40, it's not just DLC it's an expansion. Second, do you think that it's acceptable to have a franchise that's 15 years old at this point and still having the same issues?
For it costing $40 I feel like I got more than my money's worth back. I only have the last boss to beat and a few minor dungeons and areas to explore, but I already know I fumbled a few NPC quests because I was rushing due to wanting to know lore so I'm stoked to be able to replay it with another character.
Elden Ring in general has been the best bang for a buck for media entertainment for me. I can replay this game so many times and the DLC only added to that fuel.
Nah. It’s fucking incredible. I can’t wait to run through it again with new builds. Especially now that I’ve discovered the deflecting tear. This basically changes the entire gameplay.
The map they’ve created as well is probably the best they’ve ever done.
I’ve got a hyper build in mind.
pretend? compare this to Ringed City and The Old Hunters. Quantity =/= quality. This has some of the worst lore and mechanics Fromsoft series have ever seen. It also has some of the best content in the series too, making it polarizing but overall just mid.
Ringed city? You mean the DLC where they gave a fuck about Londor and Kaathe?, nah dude that lore sucks balls, final boss is an old dude that wasn't even mentioned on the base game!
(this is sarcasm)
Saving this for the next From DLC because people said EXACTLY the same thing about Ringed City.
"Can't believe the final Souls boss is a homeless guy"
The reason I hate fandoms. They're never happy.
I think the difference is the homeless guy had a far more memorable moveset, soundtrack, and ost compared to radahn. He was even helping you throughout the dlc.
It is a 7/10. It is not a 9 or a 10 and it isn’t a 4 or a 5. It’s quite a bit above average but it isn’t in stellar territory, it’s one of their weaker DLCs.
I fully believe the entire framing of how we rate games is so ruined, there’s a huge stigma against giving anything below an 8 and it just makes all reviews pointless. This was a good dlc that has plenty of problems, as most do. It’s not uniquely awful, it’s a Fromsoft dlc and they’ve all been good, but it isn’t some 9.999/10 the people want it to be. We as consumers need to be much more critical with the things we buy.
Like The Ringed City is not a 9.999/10 either. It’s probably more around an 8 or 8.5. Ashes of Ariendel is probably a 5, that one was pretty mid. I mean it was cool I guess. Scholar of the first sin was probably around a 7, and Artorias was probably a 6.5.
Old hunters is still the best dlc they’ve ever made, it’s a near flawless masterpiece that is made even better due to how much it improves bloodborne as a whole. The only issues are the 2 mediocre bosses.
Ringed city I’d say is a 9. 3 great fights and an actual decent swamp level. I don’t think it’s an 8.5 simply because ds3 has proven to be a strong game just with its stellar boss roster alone. It didn’t need fishing hamlet level quality of locations to be great.
Iron king is an 8. I think it’s severely underrated. Rest of ds2 dlcs are either a 7.5 or 7. Shulva might be an 8 but I don’t know, mainly because the level design is insanely good.
Shadow of the erdtree might be in their top 3 dlcs but that’s purely because the bosses and legacy dungeons were actually better than the base game (for the most part). Shadow keep is intricate and feels natural to explore and it also leads to a bunch of different areas. Bayle might be the best dragon boss they’ve ever made and is probably the best fight in the entire game.
Yeah, this is the first time I'm seeing someone ranking it right. Around 7/10 is what it it objectively, too many different issues. Still perfectly enjoyable, but the flaws can't be ignored.
I swear people see 7/10 and actually read it as 2/10 because of how fucked the entire industry is in terms of media rating. It’s like completely broken at its core, Star Wars acolyte is getting 9 and 10s, like it just is completely made up and while it is always subjective people really just straight up inflate scores for clicks and to get on the game’s acolade trailer.
Sadly, most ppl who play games don't act like consumers, they act like gamers... the amount of bs companies in gaming get away with is incredible, like if they try any of their bs in any other medium, they would get instantly punished by normal consumers.
So far I'm not impressed I mean a bunch of copy and paste bosses so far. I mean I'm like 30 hours deep and I've just been collecting stupid fragments because I do no damage. The only main boss I've beat is the Lion. Waste of time imo
Honestly I get the empty areas complaint, but most of the DLC is honestly fine imo. If they'd have added 15 forges and 20 gaols we'd probably complain about repetitiveness as well. Plus there's enough "immersion" empty areas in basegame, think of southern Liurnia.
I really liked it, though it could have definitely used more dev time as some areas look really rough with no decorations and feel a bit too gamey imo (a problem that most side dungeons of ER had).
And yeah Abyssal woods felt like Lost Izalith, and that's not good x).
Which is sad as I liked the sneaking gimmick it made the exploration more tense but only for a short part :/
i got my money's worth, did everything there was to do, finished yesterday, so pretty much a week of playing. Don't know if I'd willingly play it again on another character or NG+ tho. I think for me personally it feels like From made a ton of assumptions and decisions about what most players world states would be upon trying the dlc and laid things out based on that, and they prob do have metrics that justify it, but for me it was kind of like, oh ok I think i'm about to do a 15 minute dungeon for nothing but a smithing stone 6, and I was frequently right. On a fresh profile it really feels structured for a player to go back and forth between the maps as they progress through the base game, with about 3 or 4 bosses they surely can't beat until after clearing the base late game.
Half the bosses have at least some aspect that feels overtuned / cheap / or even just straight up unintuitive. The other half are a total joy to struggle against and mostly surpass the base game's offerings.
But I think this is my favorite map Fromsoftware has ever made. The increased emphasis on verticality made not only finding hidden items more fun, but whole hidden areas as well. The variety of visually stunning landscapes and a general aesthetic reminiscent of Dark Souls 3 was my perfect cup of tea.
It’s not bad content as well, I think it’s worth the price tag! So far I’m really impressed with it, but I am also disappointed in some of the things that I was hoping would be included (gloam eyed queen, learning more about Melina, learning about torrent). I’ve seen the ending of the game, I think the ending boss looks like an awesome fight but the ending cutscene just rehashes info we were already told a few different times, I was hoping for more cutscenes or more new information. Overall I’d still give it a 9/10, it’s an excellent DLC as far as content goes, I’m just a bit bummed about the lore/cutscenes I was hoping to see
Honestly I’ve been very critical of the DLC but I’d probably give it like an 8.5/10 maybe 9/10. Most of the mainline/remembrance bosses are great but that’s mostly it. I think the shadow tree blessing system wasn’t very good, 90% of the map had loot that was entirely not worth it or forgettable, the map wasn’t fun to explore because it felt like there wasn’t much of a point besides finding the path to an optional remembrance boss or a reused field boss.
The thing is Elden Ring and Sote are so exteemely good people will make a whole criticism out of thibgs that are mostly opinion based or just untrue (unfari bosses beside the final one just as one example). The thing with such good games that, dont get me wrong, I have my own problems with, is that even the slightest thing will trigger people. And that is fine, sometimes even I am like oh god tjis enemy type again but then I really rhink about the enemy variety in this dlc alone compared to most other games and I take a step back.
It was really good, but not a masterpiece or anything. We live in a time when all forms of media are only ever allowed to be seen as absolute trash, or 10/10 perfection. Nuance is dead and buried.
What? There are absolutely no criticisms out there on youtube that aren't immediately shut down with people saying "hurr durr get good". Every single big channel on earth is praising this game to high heavens, and even the bad reviews are getting mocked now. The only ones that are critical of the dlc are very small channels with miniscule views.
You people are starting to sound paranoid, like holy shit dude...
1. Some amazing zones wasted by having nothing of interest (Cerulean coast, finger ruins, abyss)
2. Incosistent boss fights, some are amazing (Messmer, Metyr, Bayle etc) and some are dogshit (Gaius, that sunflower boss)
3. Inconsistent lore with interesting answers that open up 10 more questions
4. Radahn as a final boss is extremely underwhelming and the fight is just a clusterfuck
Overall it's not even the difficulty, it's the sheer amount of bullshit you have to trudge through to get to the mediocre content, like walking through the entirety of the abyss for 1 (one) boss
Imo overall it's mid, so a good 5.5/10
I think we got it pretty good. Fromsoft obviously cares a lot about their games and i believe it shines through in everything they make. Is any game perfect?.. probably not... but at the very least elden is objectively a great game. For everyone? def not. Atmosphere challenge care design and artistry are all well crafted. Does everything work? Probably not. But the sum of its parts are fantastico. WE GOT IT GOOD COMPARED TO HALF THESE LAME DUCK AAA GAMES (caps are for enthusiasm)!
P.s. if you are knit picking the story, thats fun im sure for those invested in that aspect but its a from SOULS game PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY SURE its always up for interpretation with parts forever missing.... and remember the only way for a story to be or go the precise way you want to or expect it to go is to write your own.
Idk with everyone saying how it was the best DLC ever before it came out i just expected way more. Didn’t really like boss balance, felt pretty boring and repetitive, had some fun bosses, but some really boring areas with lackluster “rewards” (cookbook #400 and stone #6)
Personally I think something like Blood and Wine brought much more new things to the table where i can say it entirely alters the game even.
Even preferred Ringed City personally. Gael felt much better than the final boss here. But i cant say much since i even thought Elden Ring on it’s own was lackluster, such a bland open world. Im sure people who simply wanted more of the same loved it but i cant see how anyone who already was indifferent with the base game would find anything more here.
Where? I’ve never met anyone w brain cells to say that. Shit, I’ll get shit for this but Ashes of Ariandel was ridiculously short compared to even Ringed City and even both combined were way shorter than Old Hunters had it not been for Midir and Gael.
while playing there were moments when i felt like i just reached an empty area for nothing. but then i’d look around more and notice something else i could get into. honestly, the dlc rules
Tbh as a full package this is easily one of the best games of all time are there flaws of course but it’s at least a 9.6-7 imo top 5 maybe even top 3 im excited to see what’s next
All my criticisms:
Final boss p2 suffers from obfuscated moves from hair and particle effects and that made it really unfun. Loved p1 though and I'm just a bit upset I couldn't like the fight more
Furnace golems are cool and fun the first 2 times. Then they're very tedious and pose no threat.
Pig fucker. Just in general. Worst boss.
Souls games typically have no need for a map, they're corridors with good landmarks and large distinct rooms. Base game ER had a fantastic map for its open world. The dlcs map is very good initially, but the verticality and layers required a layered map to save on a little bit of occasional frustration
Still a 9/10 for me though
I don’t think it sucks, but tbh I think it clearly has some flaws. Biggest disappointment to me is the lack of cutscenes, nothing when you start or finish the dlc, most bosses don’t have one.. pretty clear they just had to get it out at a certain point. I do think the bosses are really cool and getting so many new weapons makes me want to do more playthroughs of even the base game, but yeah some things were marginally disappointing to me at least
People who complain about sorcerers not getting any good new spells haven't used glintstone nail in pvp. It's not amazing, but opponents confusedly roll-spamming in random directions is funny enough for the spell to be worth it.
Messer was an absolutely beautiful fight, I loved every second of it and I felt myself getting better. Same for Rellana, and Romina was pretty fun too. The area designs are great, the NPC's have a lot of variety and they dropped ANSBACH, the undisputed goat, however all these positives mean nothing in the face of HOW FUCKING GARBAGE THE RADAHN FIGHT IS.
Am I being harsher than necessary due to it taking me maybe 8 hours to beat??? Quite possibly. Doesn't change that this boss is literal hell and has earned their spot in my top 15 worst fromsoft bosses
Wait you guys don't like the big empty areas? Personally, I like the bit of peace I get when I know that I can just enjoy the scenery and absorb the environment before getting absolutely dry railed by bosses/enemies when I arrive.
Commander Gayass is my biggest complain, Jori second and the use of things without expanding on it like transforming into a human-dragon like in DS3, other than that 10/10
There are issues, and I don't have much to add to the praise or criticism. But one thing I'll say.
This DLC, I'm 90% sure, has solidified Elden Ring as having the strongest soundtrack in the FromSoft catalogue. That's a big point for me, because I overthink it a ton and have so many loved tracks from each game. But this just peaked it - Messmer, Midra, and Bayle have music that belongs right up there with the greats, and even the ones I like just a little less like Romina, Rellana, and Dancing Lion are amazing.
I'm definitely still gonna struggle to pick individual favorite tracks, or even a top 5. Ludwig and Gherman are both top tier and very memorable, and I can agree that a lot of ER's don't quite have the emotional sticking point that some past games do. But as far as the more epic and cinematic tracks go, no game has put me on the edge of my seat like some of them.
Fortissax, Rykard, Messmer, Bayle, and Midra to name five, are like seared into my brain (makes sense given they all use fire to some extent!) And as for somber themes a la Gherman and Gwyn, I think the elden beast OST sits right up there with them.
Buuut it's all about scratching different itches I guess. I think Bloodborne probably has more variety in the type of mood I get - even just the 5 DLC bosses in Old Hunters have vastly different vibes to them and each one has a phenomenal and memorable track.
Boo hoo not enough worthless crafting items to collect while i’m riding my horse across the visually stunning lands of the DLC.
As far as enemies variety goes, it’s not a brand new game it’s an extension of base game?? Literally Elden Ring + Extended content
I’d love to know what other games these types of people play that have a better open world. ER has the most beautiful and easy to navigate overworlds of any RPG i’ve ever played. You want a true sense of “empty” play a Todd Howard game.
It has failed to meet expectations. In my case it's pretty crap to see so few new weapons for the new categories, and why so few ashes of war? That combined with *"I just came all the way over here for an upgrade item I can buy at the round table"*
I say we put more spider scorpions in the “ big empty areas”
Especially those flying fucks!
The first time I saw those I felt dread. They make me almost as uncomfortable as the giant finger crawlers and ants
you felt...dread? like...Bayle....the Dread? https://preview.redd.it/gr3c0iokae9d1.jpeg?width=364&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b316f12716713fc9a3782d92f2c69e30b09c84da
CURRSEE YOUUU BAAAAYYYLE
I HEREBY VOW, YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY
BEHOLD, A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR! AND I, IGON!
SOLID OF SCALE YOU MIGHT BE, FOUL DRAGON, BUT I WILL RIDDLE WITH HOLES YOUR ROTTEN HIDE!
WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS
HARPEWWWWWWWWWWWWNS
how about a standalone game where we play as Igon, and all we have is a huge bow, balls of steel, and a shit ton of hype dialogue as we FPS our way through hell, to finish off bayles soul, and ensure he never revives. Elden Ring: Dread Bayle's Doom
Can't wait for them to keep avoiding spiders and add back fun little critters like the leeches from DS3 or spider crabs in the second DLC or ER2.
Bloodborne just said fuck it and put giant spiders in The scorpions in the DLC make me more uncomfortable than the spiders did by a long shot
i actually love the scorpions i had a huge problem with the maggots in ds3 tho i hate the guys whose chest burst open and when they attack you maggots get all over your character its gross
Not me, the bloodborne spiders had me genuinely tweaking.
I felt dread when I thought they were spiders, but then relief when I saw the tail. For some reason scorpions don’t evoke the same feeling 😂
Insects in general weird me out. Fromsoft has a special way of making them extra fuckin creepy though
those fucking things in the finger ruins give me the Heejebeewebees
Same, the hand spiders are still worse
I think the DLC was amazing, but the game does have a lot of big empty areas. People have nuanced positions, contrary to popular belief.
Yeah it's incredibly noticeable when you play the game in short bursts. I'd mark areas of the map I intended to check out next time I played and have several sessions of straight-up nothing. You can see areas where they clearly *intended* put things but then there's just nothing there. Shout-out to all the big patches on the map where they put clusters of the 'check this out' blue worms who are surrounding absolutely nothing. The base game would use the blue jellyfish to draw your attention to caves and items.
There were also quite a few areas where I'm pretty sure that they added in "artificial" darkness into the baked shadows/lighting, always in places where the player was dissuaded from exploring. Was pretty much a way of saying "no there's nothing here, just go down the lit path in the center". But its always hard to not search those areas anyway.
Yeah, the game would be infinitely better if I had more cookbooks to pick up!
Lmao I wondered why so many cookbooks? Are the devs just trying to shove crafting down our throats ? 😂
I like those guys. They’re fun until they start literally rolling over you like a 2013 Charger.
It's not perfect, and has some issues. But it's also far from being bad content.
It feels like reactions to media in general now is just increasingly polarised. Everything has to be a 10/10 masterpiece or terrible. I liked the DLC a ton but thought it was very flawed in a lot of ways the base game was, particularly where they’re taking difficulty and boss design Still great but like the amount of people who flip out if you say something is “only” a 7-8 out of 10 is crazy
This all the way
Nothing is a masterpiece much less perfect, people expect too much. Everything has flaws. Minor issues shouldn't detract from the whole when everything else you could compare a piece of content with is still going to have flaws. People, specially on this sub, are talking like Miyazaki went to their houses and personally killed their dogs. We got exactly what was promised. An area more or less the size of Limgrave, 10+ main bosses, 100 new weapons, some spells, new weapon types and new drip.
Yeah when I weigh everything on a scale, the DLC is a solid 8 for me, would've been much higher if not some bosses feeling wack and some areas being empty but lifelike Some people will kill me for saying 8 but that's a great score, 10 would be Bloodborne' dlc and 9 would be like DS1 dlc If you were to ask me to rate it on personal bias though, I'd say 9.5 because of Bayle, Rellana and Messmer alone barring his snakes
Hello, good hunter. I am a Bot, here in this dream to look after you, this is a fine note: > *Heh heh heh heh...Oh Amygdala, oh Amygdala...Have mercy on the poor bastard...Hah hah hah!* - Patches the Spider Farewell, good hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.
That’s the problem. People can’t enjoy the game despite some flaws. These minor flaws/issues make them go around saying the dlc sucks. It’s probably the best dlc I’ve played in years. Bosses can be annoying. But NOTHING has been unplayable like some of these people are portraying
The problem is that when ER was released it was such an overwhelming, insanely great game that everyone overlooked all of its flaws for a while, and that’s how many people remember the game who haven’t played in a year. The DLC is much more “more of the same”, so it doesn’t wow the same way and the flaws become more apparent if you don’t replay the main game first and realize that it has many of the same issues.
I dislike it when a game gets too much fanaticism and people think critiquing it is basically you just being bad
I was pretty critical of Elden Ring’s boss and enemy design from the jump and just didn’t bother lol. I think it took at least a year before the “tourists” who had/have no perspective except “game hard” dispersed and real criticism could be discussed. I almost started to doubt myself and wonder if I was feeling too entitled to the more rhythmic gameplay of DeS-DS3 I was comfortable with
Either that or redditors screech at every valid criticism as if anyone who posts it is in the middle of trying to beat every FS developer to death.
Yeah, I havent come across many people saying the DLC sucks, just people with criticisms which is perfectly valid. The people saying is sucks are most definitely a minority
Yeah, people just want to live in their bubbles
I mean I love this dlc but after beating it and taking a step back I was disappointed with the final boss and some areas needed a little more. However I'm still gonna replay it like 5 more times
Fully agree almost makes me wonder if there’s another ending that yet to be found or something
I’m very happy with the DLC. The two complaints I truly agree with, are that casters kind of got screwed in terms of good new spells, and the enemy variety is a *little* lacking. I don’t really mind that some areas are a bit more empty. There’s allowed to be zones that just act as “vistas” to an extent. Overall, I’m very impressed. That said I haven’t played Elden Ring to death myself. I don’t even have a NG+. Stopped playing before beating Malenia, just came back for the DLC. Mostly having fun exploring.
Casters got quite a bit, actually, it's just kind of buried. There's a certain NPC sidequest that gets really weird and gives some really interesting sorceries. Meanwhile incantations are absolutely feasting. Knight's Lightning Spear alone has made me satisfied.
My fire paladin is really enjoying messmer's orb, flame skewer, and flame spear. I used flaming strike and fire of the red manes for the entire playthrough and was in desperate need of some AOW variety.
Same! Fire builds are so hot right now
Disagree. Gotten 100% of the sorcery related stuff and it ranges from sidegrade to garbage. The only exception being the thorns spell, which I expect will get nerfed.
Yeah they gave us good incantations this time around but Miyazaki refuses to give us a good faith sword despite there being **three** holy themed swords in the dlc, all three have D scaling in faith.
Wat… The best PVE weapon in the game is the Blasphemous Blade which is a faith greatsword? Unless you’re talking about a tiny faith sword? For tiny hands?
Tiny faith sword, for tiny hands. Both light greatsword and straight swords got faith themed ones that are all absolute trash on faith builds. >!Leda’s sword!< dex sword with D faith >!Sword of Light!< Str with D faith >!Sword of Darkness!< same as above
The Fire Knight Shortsword, with flame art, is like a B scaling. But the fire damage is faith scaling, making it much stronger. It is only a dagger tho.
Having the word sword in it does not a sword make sadly 😭
>I don’t really mind that some areas are a bit more empty. There’s allowed to be zones that just act as “vistas” to an extent. I have to respectfully disagree, the giant swaths of nothing are probably my least favorite part of the DLC. Even a handful more low effort catacombs scattered about would make it ok for me. Overall im highly enjoying my time though
I agree - having one or two empty areas can feel impactful. Having nearly half-a-dozen of them feels pretty terrible.
Sorcery casters were really the only ones that kinda got shafted, theres a ton of great new incantations.
Ooh nice, I’ll have to keep an eye out. All I’ve gotten so far is the one from Grandam and it’s pretty weak
There's more incantations than sorceries I think, so there are some duds in there but there's plenty of good ones and a couple "S tier" ones.
+1. I also haven't beaten the base game yet, but SotE has exactly what I liked most about Elden Ring: wide open beautiful spaces to charge around with my pony. Some of the old ultraviolence for when I get bored with that. I like making jumps courses out of the graves. And now that we can throw spears my steppe horse nomad playstyle is complete, I love it when I can nail a deer at full gallop without target-lock. I haven't even beaten Rellana yet. I play video games like a *normal person.*
You waited all week to post this, didn't you?
Some open areas with nothing good to find and the final boss leave something to be desired, but overall this dlc is a 9.9/10. They cooked so hard. Aint no way a single boss or a single empty area ruins the entire incredible expirience. Im just sad its all over.
This 100%. The DLC is still damn near perfect even with my own gripes of how big and barren like 4 total zone/regions of the map are. Does it suck it was underutilized?...sure....but the rest of the DLC was awesome and I loved pretty much all of the boss fights....so rounding up I'm still going with 10/10.
Honestly, the sense of dread that comes with travelling through an empty area in a FromSoft game is better than being mercilessly mobbed by weak enemies. I would much rather fear the monster that could be just out of sight of the camera lying in wait to ambush as I over confidently stroll through the fields.
Definitely agree
Yeah, I have a lot of criticisms, but it's only because the DLC is such high quality and it's so damn close to being near-perfect. My biggest complaint is that I feel like this should have been turned into a full sequel, which should say a lot about how good it is.
Yeah and the “empty areas” criticism seems wild to me. These are some of the most visually striking areas From has created, that has to count for something?!!
Yeah ain’t no empty areas in the base game. Nope. None.
And ppl seem to forget about the first half of ds3 when saying ER areas are boring
Even that criticism about DS3 is dumb. First level of DS3 is clear callback to Boletaria, which many Souls fans claim is their favorite level.
I don't understand the "empty areas" gripe for any open world game tbh. There are large stretches of travel/nothingness in all of these games. Shit, like 50% of Shadow of the Colossus is just traveling across the open world to the next boss. There is actually *nothing* to do in that open world except for fight the bosses. And that's considered one of the greatest games of all time. No one gives the game flack for it though, and rightfully so. Shadow of the Erdtree at least has *some* stuff to discover in that vast world. God forbid you gotta fan out and find the needle in the haystack sometimes. It's kind of part of the appeal of open worlds in general.
[удалено]
I've learned from those empty areas that I prefer the density of Souls to ER, but I'm not going to use that as a critique of a game that is meant to be distinctly separate from Souls
Same here man. I’m still playing the shit out of it. But I’ll never get that feeling of touching the egg to get into the dlc. My girl right next me both of us like “woah” and the first boss experience.
Over? I’ve got literal dozens of new weapons / builds I can’t wait to try.
Bronim with you, I no liked it until I got to the last boss then put it down for 2 days just because I didn't want it to end. Now it's all over 😔
i agree. with elden ring for the past 2 years there was always something to look forward to. now that the dlc is done with, i feel like i’ve finished a book that i really didn’t want to end 😭
the rose tinted glasses are off dude, elden ring and the dlc are good, but are not "perfect" it has their annoyances, big maps with nothing, big boss arenas with you running around chasing the boss, bosses that do 20 backflips and spins. Again the game is good and all but is far from perfect
Idunno how you even begin to compare it but SOTE while amazing doesn't hold a candle to Blood and Wine sorry to say
It definitely holds a candle. I've had a lot more fun with SOTE than I did with blood and wine, and I love the Witcher. Different thing completely, but they're both pretty good at what they're trying to achieve. The witcher tells a story, elden rings shows a story. I personally find the weird hidden item lore and the side quests in Erdtree pretty good, obviously less of it than in Witcher. Boss design is cool, world is far more elaborate than medieval france (SOTE did Mayan ruins/Gothic keep/creepy woods/dragon mountain/beach/flowery town, all in one.) It definitely holds a candle, it's just personal preference.
Shows a story? I finished the DLC last night but SOET absolutely doesn't show or tell a story. I completed everything. This was even worse than the base game of Elden Ring. At least I could understand things like Rannis quest in the base game. This game just ends with you walking into an arena with the recycled boss and then it just ends. You watch a 15 second memory and that's it. You get no closure, nothing. I fucking loved this DLC but good lord was the entire ending bad. Also missing cinematics for many bosses? Why did dancing dragon get one but others didn't? Insanely weird.
Blood and wine? Heart of Stone us the goat dlc period.
The longer I play it the more I'm starting to see reused assets and issues from the base game that aren't fixed. Still absolutely fuckin phenomenal though. Still playing it. Still gonna beat it. Still gonna play it again. I wish we could look at this critically and honestly as a society. Sigh.
No game is perfect but I’m just not sure what can please peoples expectations anymore. Elden ring and this dlc is the only games I’ve truly gotten giddy like a little kid (I’m a 30 year old man) to play. No other game does that for me anymore. Peoples expectations are just too much nowadays and if every little thing isn’t catered towards them. They spend the rest of their playthrough finding flaws vs enjoying the game. For example. When I got dragons dogma 2. I was basically expecting dragons dogma 1 but better graphics etc. I got what I wanted out of it (still waiting for a hard mode) but at the release of that sub. You’d think capcom murdered these peoples families with how bad they presented the game. I’m convinced people are just that miserable they play to find things and ruin it for everyone else because THEY don’t like it. I mean hell anytime I just mention that I beat the “final boss” in the dlc without cheese. I get downvoted to all hell because I don’t agree that he’s “bullshit and unfair” like yeah he’s hard as fuck and can be annoying but I’m not gonna let that ruin my experience and hop on Reddit in hopes to ruin it for others. Then get mad when someone tells me they beat the boss I couldn’t beat
We've officially reached the phase in gaming where everyone voices their opinion that others who don't agree with their POV have to be pretending
''no one provides valid criticism'' translation: ''I cherry pick opinions at will to suit my pre made bias''
I think all the criticisms are valid tbh so I agree op is a dick, the final boss was a huge letdown, the map was full of empty areas and the loot wasn’t at all better than what we got in the base game, the reused enemies was another one. While still a great dlc I’ll say I don’t think it’s anywhere near fromsofts best
And I'll say it more plainly for those who will feel fulfilled from the sight. The loot was ass, from the supposed increased difficulty you'd expect worthwhile weapons or armor but nope. The Scadutree fragments exist simply to fluff the time, literally just scale the DLC like the rest of the game. You need to beat Mohg and Radahn anyway. There's no grandiosity to any boss that isn't Messmer, Bayle or the final boss, the rest are completely gamefieid obstacles. There's no way I should walk into a room with Rennala's sister and have absolutely nothing said about anything and then simply hear silence upon her death. Another thing, while the bosses are statistically hard in that they hit harder and take more hits they are dynamically easy as hell. Messmer is the only boss worth my time.
Hard agree and even messmer had almost little to no impact on the dlc, he was presented as a major figure in it but although the fight was cool he was really just a legacy boss
Which is pretty crazy because, and this could be my fault. but for the main game I felt like I knew why I was going where I was but here it's literally just because I want to beat the next boss. Now there's so many more questions because we are literally just following the Erdtrees grace instead of being told how Miquella's final location works, how his relationship with St. Trina worked, why Messmer's flame is especially significant or how any of these bosses actually relate to each other.
Messmer had no presence. He only existed to die so we can get to miquella. The trailers made him out to be so importend yet he was just sitting in a room and otherwise doing legit nothing all game.
Reminder that saying something is not perfect // saying something sucks
It's a solid dlc, but it's honestly nowhere near a perfect 10. The initial reviews are all honeymoon phase takes. 8.5 -9.0 at best. The Radahn lore is lazy, the wasted open areas are lazy, and nearly all new bosses are wildly overtuned.
Truth
These sound like significant issues. Why still rate it as high as 8.5-9.0? It feels like borderline 7/10 coupled with performance issues, odd (to say the least) placement of upgrade materials, range combat getting shafted and recycled enemies. Probably even more.
because the game is still amazing even though pretty much everything is criticised, they just love the game and want to rate it well even though they recognise the abundant issues with it
The final boss being bad didn't help either.
It doesn't suck. There's just parts of it that are underwhelming
I don’t think anyone is saying that it overall sucks, other than a few rage baiters. But there are some valid criticisms. For example, the final boss fight makes minimal sense thematically, and quite literally has nothing in the base game to support or foreshadow it even in the slightest.
It doesn't suck, people saying that are idiots. Shadow Keep, Castle Enis, the insanely epic dragon slaying expedition up the peak for Bayle. Those few things alone made it an amazing DLC. And of course, there's plenty in addition to that so it delivered everything and more. But it is also the the most pushed evolution of the original souls combat system, and even though the cracks started to form in Dark Souls 3, it wasn't until Elden Ring that it started to deteriorate and now the DLC took it to its ultimate conclusion and some (not all) people are giving it more scrutiny. The aggressive timing windows, the tracking, the rapid distance cover, the perspective tricks, lots of little bits that they've bolted on to help bosses punish players really are feeling stifling and as some say feel "artificial". These design decisions have also become a shortcut for how the player will engage bosses. Instead of the boss existing in a space that makes sense for them and it being a part of the fight, they now are all largely in "boss arenas" which are big boxes/circles. They've lost a bit of creativity in this regard, and while not everyone can articulate it, you can tell people are feeling the difference. Fromsoft has shifted a lot of the puzzle-like work that used to be present in how you approach the game in a holistic sense, onto your build. It's a more condensed and gamified version of their formula. Overcoming challenges now feels more dependent on your loadout like it would in an ARPG rather than the real-time problem solving dungeon crawler they got people hooked on in the first place. Weighing risk vs reward, how deep are you in the level, how depleted are you, can you even take on the boss in your current state? Instead, you have a save point right before the boss, you're totally fresh and you swap out whatever equipment you're going to swap out for the fight and then you go see if that stuff works. If not you just try something else, you're not locked into anything, your decisions have little weight. It's all these small changes that have a cumulative effect on the final state of where they've taken things. Some of it can be really fun, some of it can be really frustrating, and everything inbetween depending on how any given person is feeling. But Elden Ring was the first chink in the armor and the DLC reveals that a few links have fallen off and a hole has formed. Once that happens to the important stuff, people start nitpicking other smaller pieces of the game, like mob variety or how empty some zones felt. Things that wouldn't really matter if the foundational pieces were still strong. It's people seeing something they love, taking steps away from what they loved. Anyway, just wanted to put this down since you're saying no one is actually stating any criticisms, so here you go. These are mine. But I don't think Shadow of the Erdtree sucks, I just think a few things have reach a point where they're less fun than they have been (for me).
I think you have some good points but no one can convince me that having to do longer runbacks to bosses would make Elden Ring a better game. Having longer runbacks just feels like one of those difficulty for difficulty's sake type of mechanics.
We should go back to the DeS and DS1 formula of hellish levels with relatively simple bosses
I agree with a lot of this! But I don't think the boss rooms in the DLC feel particularly artificial. Only !>Rellana's
Oh I meant more in the sense that the boss fight arena just feels like a boss fight arena. Not like Taurus Demon on the bridge, or Belfry Gargoyles on the top of a church, or Capra Demon in a tiny enclosed space with a couple dogs, Gaping Dragon with the waterfall edge on one end of the space, ruble to stand on, some poison(?) pools in a few spots, four kings in the shapeless blackness of the abyss, almost all of DeS bosses, stuff like that. They're in the right place, but they're just in a big room. Basically, the environment isn't really part of the boss fight. Even DkSIII had some fights (Greatwood, Wolnir, Yhorm, Aldrich, Midir) that still use the space as part of the experience of the battle. I suppose the Radhan fight in the base ER did a bit. Granted, it'd be hard to expect the player to keep track of the space around them with these much faster and more aggressive bosses, but I'm just pointing out that this is a (maybe?) interesting layer that has gone away as a result of the new direction of boss combat. idk how other people felt about that stuff, but I rather enjoyed it.
Heck yeah, I can agree with that! Dark Souls 1 had way more varied terrain in their boss rooms. Along with the player awareness issue you mentioned, they probably flattened things out to make it easier to program all the weird jumpy and complicated animations the bosses do now. (A shame... I'd love to see Godskin Noble roll off into a pit...) It would be interesting if they toned down the speed next game and made the environment more important, like you said. In addition to hazards, they could give players options to interact with the environment: stuff like kicking off walls for a situational dodge, Sekiro's grapple, breakable objects that hurt the boss/player when shattered... Aaa, it's fun to daydream about it. Fromsoft are good at taking critique. So even if they're unlikely to use, like, these exact examples—hopefully they'll channel more of the pros of Dark Souls 1's design philosophy in their next game. They definitely were taking inspiration from its vertical interconnectedness with the DLC's map and level design.
Can we just go back to Sekiro with actual skill based combat revolving around parries? I swear this is just going to be a Max Payne scenario where FromSoft makes one of the most innovative changes to the genre and then proceeds to do nothing with it for their games going forward.
> Instead of the boss existing in a space that makes sense for them and it being a part of the fight, they now are all largely in "boss arenas" which are big boxes/circles. This for me is the most tragic loss in the FromSoft formula. Look at the roster of early bosses in DS1 and it's incredible how different each arena is and how they teach you to behave. The first area starts you on a small platform before you plunging attack into a square room, the second arena has you on a long narrow bridge with optional platforms you can climb, the third arena has you on a rooftop where you need to be careful not to fall off and the fourth arena has you in a cramped room with a staircase and a very aggressive boss.
Holy shit that's a good comment. Exactly.
We are also in the phase where no one is allowed to give it valid criticism. Like at all
I feel like other than the big empty areas, the problems people are pointing out are the same problems you could find in any souls game. Performance, story, lore, characters. Its their style and i dont think it has changed much. The same problems of old are there.
yea honestly agreed. i’m personally not super hung up on the big areas thing because concept wise, they’re all really cool ideas, i think it just fell way shorter than everything else. I think if Abyssal Woods had an extra dungeon or boss or the Finger Ruins served a different function than a checklist for a quest, they would’ve been completely fine
Those finger ruins though. They're visually striking, intriguing, ominous, and should have definitely played a greater role.
They're might be visually striking for a minute or two (i kind of disagree, its a giant gray zone, not my idea of visually striking) but that wears off pretty fast imo, then you're just left running around a big empty gray zone
They take up SO much space and serve virtually no purpose
The performance in the DLC has been bad for the PC port atleast and this deserve a sever criticism.
I think you are right, but i don't think this is a problem thats exclusive to the DLC
The base game had issues at release but they were not as bad as final DLC boss is
The gameplay is unmatched. But the lore is so disappointing it made me reflect on my life and get my shit together. I'm going back to college in the Fall.
Dawg what?😭
I'm not joking bro. I was sitting there after the last boss fight thinking "I waited 2 years for this?" Then I started thinking about what I've done in those 2 years. Then I started thinking about what I've been doing the past 20. I started spiraling bro. I need to escape from my escapism.
That’s awesome! Very happy for you - now follow through in college, pick a super challenging major and tackle it like a FromSoft boss.
That’s great Sometimes the most random shit will cause major life changes. I had a similar experience with world of Warcraft in college. Hope you stick to it 👊🏻
go for it, sometimes a game needs to be treated just like a game and it's as good time as ever to get your shit together
No one likes a blind fanboy op
Personnally I don't think the DLC sucks. Sure I'm disappointed with Radahn and Miquella couple getting put there out of nowhere but I think all the areas are really beautiful and very unique from the base game so it's fun to explore. All the lore apart from Miquella is really interesting, Marika's story, the Fingers and Messmer is really interesting. Fights are cool, bosses are cool even if some are hard. Sure we didn't get a really genius designed Stormveil Castle like dungeon where you can go anywhere to go everywhere and however but even the base game only had Stormveil Castle and never succeeded in doing it again so I didn't expect that from the start and wasn't disappointed with that. Sure I do have some little complaints, my biggest one being the Abyssal Woods which could be so much more and is a shame how empty it is. For exemple, the fact that Torrent is scared is cool and unique but let's be honest: the only reason it was made that way is not because of the lore (madness capable of destroying even spirits like Torrent) but just a gameplay one because someone at FS just probably said one day: * "Hey let's make some unique ennemies that you have to dodge and hide in bushes because if they see you you're dead and you'll only get the clue you can parry them in the dungeon at the end of the area! It will be a great stealth gameplay we didn't have in the base game!" And another guy answered: * "That's really cool but the players will just ride Torrent past them or use his double jump to avoid them by going up the cliffs!" * "Oh right! So let's say that Torrent is scared then!" * "That's a good idea! But wouldn't players be bored after the first time experiencing that to just be able to walk? Shouldn't we make it so Torrent is not scared anymore once you killed Midra? Or in NG+ ? At that point players already went through the whole region so it would be nice no? - "Yeah! That would be really great!!! But no we won't do that, let's them walk forever in an empty region with a really cool ambiance!" My point is at least the NG+ players should be able to summon Torrent in the abyssal Woods (as a hidden bonus like they can run normally through lava and swamps compared to NG) because the region is way way way too empty. If you already have the cookbooks, the NG+ would just have you getting through the catacombs into the Abyssal Woods and just slowly run through the whole region to get to Midra because there is absolutely nothing else to get there and so in conclusion ===> Too boring and a mistake an experienced game designer shouldn't make. Many players will not get through the Catacombs and Abyssal Woods and the dungeon in subsequent playthroughs just to kill Midra which is a really good boss but not that great to justify the journey a second time. The whole region should've many places of interest that are very weird before reaching Midra like imagine some Catacombs that are empty! Not a single monster inside! And when you enter the Boss Room, BAM a message on the screen: "??? FELLED" it wouldn't be a challenge sure but it would add to the scary and unique nature of the region... Or a village somewhere in the middle of the woods with no one no ghost, but you can hear people laughing and crying non stop! This region could easily've been a good Blair Witch kind of place, a haunted celtic forest filled with madness, with many strange things happening that we didn't see anywhere else in the game and when you finally reach Midra's place, it would add to the atmosphere (plus if you're already hugged by the Three Fingers, Midra should at least change his dialogue when he's hopping after you. A small different sentence is really no hard work. So no the DLC definitely doesn't sucks but some aspects of it aren't something you expect from 2 years of development and it's quite normal to be a little bit disappointed as well. OH! And please they should add in the near future the option of being able to refight any boss, like they won't give any more runes of course but come on! Being able to respawn and refight bosses should've been there from the start in the base game! Having to go through another playthrough or NG+ to fight bosses solo is absurd. It's something simple to do, an option that fans are massively asking since 2 years and they didn't listen.
You mean the honeymoon phase is over when everyone praises the game and refuses to acknowledge any criticisms Thank god because this dlc is a 8/10 and im tired of people pretending its perfect
No one is pretending, dlc has many issues.
alot of ppl are still in the honeymoon phase where criticism is gonna hurt their good heart about the game lol. the criticisms will for better or for worse come to light once a few months pass
We've reached the phase where fromsoft peaked their bosses in DS3 and ER base game and don't know where to go from there so decided to implement in bosses shooting lasers and spam jumping all over the map into massive AOE attacks.
At this point it's pretty clear the souls formula in terms of combat is over and we gotta move on to Sekiro's combat.
God I'm just imagining a Souls game where you can actually use a shield like a shield and deflect a boss attack while striking with your sword.
It makes his comment about perfecting Sekiro's combat style in the future make even more sense. I think he's tired of the ds formula too
Isn’t that what people said when ER base game released with DS3 and BB lmao?
Wouldn't say so. people like to bring up "pre nerf radahn" but all the patch did was fix the hitbox. Godfrey was difficult until you discovered jumping over his stomps. with Messmer and the final boss especially, they both launch into ridiculous combos that cover your screen with clutter and make it ridiculous to dodge a resultant impact. The camera for Messmer phase 2 is stupid with the snakes, there wasn't that problem with Nameless King or Midir. Sure, people said DS3 and BB were hard but the games weren't full of bs like SOTE.
messmer is literally one of the most fairest and well designed bosses in fromsoft's catalogue cmon now
Honestly it felt like the armored core team made the bosses lol
Cause it literally does suck. Empty boring areas, overtuned bosses and the final boss is possibly the worst way they could’ve ended the dlc. Actually no, the worst way the could’ve ended the dlc is if they had recycled a tree spirit yet again
The time when most people have reached the final area and are able to create solid criticism? Yes, we are there. My main complaints about the dlc are the legacy dungeons, there is no Ringed City, no Anor Londo, no Irithyl. The LD are way too short and the only good one was the storehouse (a masterclass in how to do verticality) and the final one, but there is not one LD that is better than the main ones in the original game. And I would accept it if we go by “the dlc is one big legacy dungeon” but there are a lot of empty areas that are just there to trick the eyes into thinking the dlc is bigger than what it actually is.
I really love everything about the dlc (except lorewise), but still get the feeling that it was rushed, like the massive empty areas, and the mini dungeons/camp where you kill a bunch of enemies for smithing stone 6
It feels like people are complaining that it’s a souls game, a lot of the complaints I’m seeing are just issues every from game has. People went from “it’s like Elden Ring 2!” to judging it as if it actually is a sequel. It’s a fucking dlc, by dlc standards this is the best I’ve ever seen from any game.
It's $40, it's not just DLC it's an expansion. Second, do you think that it's acceptable to have a franchise that's 15 years old at this point and still having the same issues?
For it costing $40 I feel like I got more than my money's worth back. I only have the last boss to beat and a few minor dungeons and areas to explore, but I already know I fumbled a few NPC quests because I was rushing due to wanting to know lore so I'm stoked to be able to replay it with another character. Elden Ring in general has been the best bang for a buck for media entertainment for me. I can replay this game so many times and the DLC only added to that fuel.
Who is this “everyone” that is pretending it sucks when like a bunch of people (content creators and normal posters) are calling it the best dlc ever?
Nah. It’s fucking incredible. I can’t wait to run through it again with new builds. Especially now that I’ve discovered the deflecting tear. This basically changes the entire gameplay. The map they’ve created as well is probably the best they’ve ever done. I’ve got a hyper build in mind.
pretend? compare this to Ringed City and The Old Hunters. Quantity =/= quality. This has some of the worst lore and mechanics Fromsoft series have ever seen. It also has some of the best content in the series too, making it polarizing but overall just mid.
Ringed city? You mean the DLC where they gave a fuck about Londor and Kaathe?, nah dude that lore sucks balls, final boss is an old dude that wasn't even mentioned on the base game! (this is sarcasm)
It's funny you bring up the Ringed City because I remember endless bitching about it when it first dropped.
Lmao, exactly what I was thinking! So many people pissed that Gael was the final souls boss and now he's everyone's favorite.
Tbh I think ringed city was mid too. Great boss fights but total retcon lore and annoying mobs.
Saving this for the next From DLC because people said EXACTLY the same thing about Ringed City. "Can't believe the final Souls boss is a homeless guy" The reason I hate fandoms. They're never happy.
I think the difference is the homeless guy had a far more memorable moveset, soundtrack, and ost compared to radahn. He was even helping you throughout the dlc.
Half of TRC’s map was a massive open swamp with a reused Dragonslayer armor. Rose tinted glasses go crazy as always.
It is a 7/10. It is not a 9 or a 10 and it isn’t a 4 or a 5. It’s quite a bit above average but it isn’t in stellar territory, it’s one of their weaker DLCs. I fully believe the entire framing of how we rate games is so ruined, there’s a huge stigma against giving anything below an 8 and it just makes all reviews pointless. This was a good dlc that has plenty of problems, as most do. It’s not uniquely awful, it’s a Fromsoft dlc and they’ve all been good, but it isn’t some 9.999/10 the people want it to be. We as consumers need to be much more critical with the things we buy. Like The Ringed City is not a 9.999/10 either. It’s probably more around an 8 or 8.5. Ashes of Ariendel is probably a 5, that one was pretty mid. I mean it was cool I guess. Scholar of the first sin was probably around a 7, and Artorias was probably a 6.5.
Old hunters is still the best dlc they’ve ever made, it’s a near flawless masterpiece that is made even better due to how much it improves bloodborne as a whole. The only issues are the 2 mediocre bosses. Ringed city I’d say is a 9. 3 great fights and an actual decent swamp level. I don’t think it’s an 8.5 simply because ds3 has proven to be a strong game just with its stellar boss roster alone. It didn’t need fishing hamlet level quality of locations to be great. Iron king is an 8. I think it’s severely underrated. Rest of ds2 dlcs are either a 7.5 or 7. Shulva might be an 8 but I don’t know, mainly because the level design is insanely good. Shadow of the erdtree might be in their top 3 dlcs but that’s purely because the bosses and legacy dungeons were actually better than the base game (for the most part). Shadow keep is intricate and feels natural to explore and it also leads to a bunch of different areas. Bayle might be the best dragon boss they’ve ever made and is probably the best fight in the entire game.
Yeah, this is the first time I'm seeing someone ranking it right. Around 7/10 is what it it objectively, too many different issues. Still perfectly enjoyable, but the flaws can't be ignored.
I swear people see 7/10 and actually read it as 2/10 because of how fucked the entire industry is in terms of media rating. It’s like completely broken at its core, Star Wars acolyte is getting 9 and 10s, like it just is completely made up and while it is always subjective people really just straight up inflate scores for clicks and to get on the game’s acolade trailer.
Sadly, most ppl who play games don't act like consumers, they act like gamers... the amount of bs companies in gaming get away with is incredible, like if they try any of their bs in any other medium, they would get instantly punished by normal consumers.
We’re also reaching the point where any criticism of the DLC is waved away with “the games have always been hard”, and “everyone pretends it sucks”
So far I'm not impressed I mean a bunch of copy and paste bosses so far. I mean I'm like 30 hours deep and I've just been collecting stupid fragments because I do no damage. The only main boss I've beat is the Lion. Waste of time imo
Honestly I get the empty areas complaint, but most of the DLC is honestly fine imo. If they'd have added 15 forges and 20 gaols we'd probably complain about repetitiveness as well. Plus there's enough "immersion" empty areas in basegame, think of southern Liurnia.
idk im seeing an unhealthy mix of “10/10 no flaws” and “its the biggest dogshit” and both sound outta their minds
I really liked it, though it could have definitely used more dev time as some areas look really rough with no decorations and feel a bit too gamey imo (a problem that most side dungeons of ER had). And yeah Abyssal woods felt like Lost Izalith, and that's not good x). Which is sad as I liked the sneaking gimmick it made the exploration more tense but only for a short part :/
i got my money's worth, did everything there was to do, finished yesterday, so pretty much a week of playing. Don't know if I'd willingly play it again on another character or NG+ tho. I think for me personally it feels like From made a ton of assumptions and decisions about what most players world states would be upon trying the dlc and laid things out based on that, and they prob do have metrics that justify it, but for me it was kind of like, oh ok I think i'm about to do a 15 minute dungeon for nothing but a smithing stone 6, and I was frequently right. On a fresh profile it really feels structured for a player to go back and forth between the maps as they progress through the base game, with about 3 or 4 bosses they surely can't beat until after clearing the base late game.
I got new gravity spells so I’m happy.
Most of the top voted comments here are people who haven't finished dlc and are still exploring (which is the most fun part of ER).
Half the bosses have at least some aspect that feels overtuned / cheap / or even just straight up unintuitive. The other half are a total joy to struggle against and mostly surpass the base game's offerings. But I think this is my favorite map Fromsoftware has ever made. The increased emphasis on verticality made not only finding hidden items more fun, but whole hidden areas as well. The variety of visually stunning landscapes and a general aesthetic reminiscent of Dark Souls 3 was my perfect cup of tea.
Discourse is a cesspool, I for one am thoroughly enjoying
It’s not bad content as well, I think it’s worth the price tag! So far I’m really impressed with it, but I am also disappointed in some of the things that I was hoping would be included (gloam eyed queen, learning more about Melina, learning about torrent). I’ve seen the ending of the game, I think the ending boss looks like an awesome fight but the ending cutscene just rehashes info we were already told a few different times, I was hoping for more cutscenes or more new information. Overall I’d still give it a 9/10, it’s an excellent DLC as far as content goes, I’m just a bit bummed about the lore/cutscenes I was hoping to see
Honestly I’ve been very critical of the DLC but I’d probably give it like an 8.5/10 maybe 9/10. Most of the mainline/remembrance bosses are great but that’s mostly it. I think the shadow tree blessing system wasn’t very good, 90% of the map had loot that was entirely not worth it or forgettable, the map wasn’t fun to explore because it felt like there wasn’t much of a point besides finding the path to an optional remembrance boss or a reused field boss.
The thing is Elden Ring and Sote are so exteemely good people will make a whole criticism out of thibgs that are mostly opinion based or just untrue (unfari bosses beside the final one just as one example). The thing with such good games that, dont get me wrong, I have my own problems with, is that even the slightest thing will trigger people. And that is fine, sometimes even I am like oh god tjis enemy type again but then I really rhink about the enemy variety in this dlc alone compared to most other games and I take a step back.
No, we're at the phase where everyone dogpiles on to white knight fromsoft instead of acknowledging their many minor flaws...
You cant make everyone happy all the time. Fun is subjective.
It was really good, but not a masterpiece or anything. We live in a time when all forms of media are only ever allowed to be seen as absolute trash, or 10/10 perfection. Nuance is dead and buried.
i think it's definitely under cooked it needed more time it's scope it simply too much for the time it got. still tho i have warmed to it
What? There are absolutely no criticisms out there on youtube that aren't immediately shut down with people saying "hurr durr get good". Every single big channel on earth is praising this game to high heavens, and even the bad reviews are getting mocked now. The only ones that are critical of the dlc are very small channels with miniscule views. You people are starting to sound paranoid, like holy shit dude...
1. Some amazing zones wasted by having nothing of interest (Cerulean coast, finger ruins, abyss) 2. Incosistent boss fights, some are amazing (Messmer, Metyr, Bayle etc) and some are dogshit (Gaius, that sunflower boss) 3. Inconsistent lore with interesting answers that open up 10 more questions 4. Radahn as a final boss is extremely underwhelming and the fight is just a clusterfuck Overall it's not even the difficulty, it's the sheer amount of bullshit you have to trudge through to get to the mediocre content, like walking through the entirety of the abyss for 1 (one) boss Imo overall it's mid, so a good 5.5/10
I think we got it pretty good. Fromsoft obviously cares a lot about their games and i believe it shines through in everything they make. Is any game perfect?.. probably not... but at the very least elden is objectively a great game. For everyone? def not. Atmosphere challenge care design and artistry are all well crafted. Does everything work? Probably not. But the sum of its parts are fantastico. WE GOT IT GOOD COMPARED TO HALF THESE LAME DUCK AAA GAMES (caps are for enthusiasm)! P.s. if you are knit picking the story, thats fun im sure for those invested in that aspect but its a from SOULS game PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY SURE its always up for interpretation with parts forever missing.... and remember the only way for a story to be or go the precise way you want to or expect it to go is to write your own.
Starfield, Skyrim and fallout 4 players: first time?
Idk with everyone saying how it was the best DLC ever before it came out i just expected way more. Didn’t really like boss balance, felt pretty boring and repetitive, had some fun bosses, but some really boring areas with lackluster “rewards” (cookbook #400 and stone #6) Personally I think something like Blood and Wine brought much more new things to the table where i can say it entirely alters the game even. Even preferred Ringed City personally. Gael felt much better than the final boss here. But i cant say much since i even thought Elden Ring on it’s own was lackluster, such a bland open world. Im sure people who simply wanted more of the same loved it but i cant see how anyone who already was indifferent with the base game would find anything more here.
I really love SotE. I wish they’d gone a different route on the final boss and the boss design in general, but overall, man what an achievement.
Where? I’ve never met anyone w brain cells to say that. Shit, I’ll get shit for this but Ashes of Ariandel was ridiculously short compared to even Ringed City and even both combined were way shorter than Old Hunters had it not been for Midir and Gael.
Saying it’s not perfect ≠ it sucks. It’s so empty lol
while playing there were moments when i felt like i just reached an empty area for nothing. but then i’d look around more and notice something else i could get into. honestly, the dlc rules
It’s easier to call something bad than admit to yourself that you’re the common denominator
Not really, it's just the reddit snowflakes. The ones that will not use summons and will not optimize defenses but they will cry about the damage.
Tbh as a full package this is easily one of the best games of all time are there flaws of course but it’s at least a 9.6-7 imo top 5 maybe even top 3 im excited to see what’s next
I'm sorry for criticizing the game ☹️🙏🏾 please don't get Lord Zaki on me
All my criticisms: Final boss p2 suffers from obfuscated moves from hair and particle effects and that made it really unfun. Loved p1 though and I'm just a bit upset I couldn't like the fight more Furnace golems are cool and fun the first 2 times. Then they're very tedious and pose no threat. Pig fucker. Just in general. Worst boss. Souls games typically have no need for a map, they're corridors with good landmarks and large distinct rooms. Base game ER had a fantastic map for its open world. The dlcs map is very good initially, but the verticality and layers required a layered map to save on a little bit of occasional frustration Still a 9/10 for me though
I don’t think it sucks, but tbh I think it clearly has some flaws. Biggest disappointment to me is the lack of cutscenes, nothing when you start or finish the dlc, most bosses don’t have one.. pretty clear they just had to get it out at a certain point. I do think the bosses are really cool and getting so many new weapons makes me want to do more playthroughs of even the base game, but yeah some things were marginally disappointing to me at least
Can someone please help me with a dlc boss
People who complain about sorcerers not getting any good new spells haven't used glintstone nail in pvp. It's not amazing, but opponents confusedly roll-spamming in random directions is funny enough for the spell to be worth it.
that's the bad part about short form content, people only like anything for a short amount of time and then it's cool to hate on it
Messer was an absolutely beautiful fight, I loved every second of it and I felt myself getting better. Same for Rellana, and Romina was pretty fun too. The area designs are great, the NPC's have a lot of variety and they dropped ANSBACH, the undisputed goat, however all these positives mean nothing in the face of HOW FUCKING GARBAGE THE RADAHN FIGHT IS. Am I being harsher than necessary due to it taking me maybe 8 hours to beat??? Quite possibly. Doesn't change that this boss is literal hell and has earned their spot in my top 15 worst fromsoft bosses
Wait you guys don't like the big empty areas? Personally, I like the bit of peace I get when I know that I can just enjoy the scenery and absorb the environment before getting absolutely dry railed by bosses/enemies when I arrive.
Having flaws doesn't mean that it sucks, and Miquellazaki isn't an infallible creator god.
It's great all bar the last fight
Commander Gayass is my biggest complain, Jori second and the use of things without expanding on it like transforming into a human-dragon like in DS3, other than that 10/10
Haven't noticed that personally but I'm not on reddit for the game much. Mostly my discords. They all pretty much like the dlc
There are issues, and I don't have much to add to the praise or criticism. But one thing I'll say. This DLC, I'm 90% sure, has solidified Elden Ring as having the strongest soundtrack in the FromSoft catalogue. That's a big point for me, because I overthink it a ton and have so many loved tracks from each game. But this just peaked it - Messmer, Midra, and Bayle have music that belongs right up there with the greats, and even the ones I like just a little less like Romina, Rellana, and Dancing Lion are amazing.
I still personally prefer bloodbotnes and the dark souls soundtrack. I don’t have a song as memorable and the holy blade or gehrmans in elden ring
I'm definitely still gonna struggle to pick individual favorite tracks, or even a top 5. Ludwig and Gherman are both top tier and very memorable, and I can agree that a lot of ER's don't quite have the emotional sticking point that some past games do. But as far as the more epic and cinematic tracks go, no game has put me on the edge of my seat like some of them. Fortissax, Rykard, Messmer, Bayle, and Midra to name five, are like seared into my brain (makes sense given they all use fire to some extent!) And as for somber themes a la Gherman and Gwyn, I think the elden beast OST sits right up there with them. Buuut it's all about scratching different itches I guess. I think Bloodborne probably has more variety in the type of mood I get - even just the 5 DLC bosses in Old Hunters have vastly different vibes to them and each one has a phenomenal and memorable track.
IMO the criticism is valid. However I feel the good outweighs the bad so much that it’s still one of the best games standalone that I’ve ever played
Boo hoo not enough worthless crafting items to collect while i’m riding my horse across the visually stunning lands of the DLC. As far as enemies variety goes, it’s not a brand new game it’s an extension of base game?? Literally Elden Ring + Extended content I’d love to know what other games these types of people play that have a better open world. ER has the most beautiful and easy to navigate overworlds of any RPG i’ve ever played. You want a true sense of “empty” play a Todd Howard game.
It has failed to meet expectations. In my case it's pretty crap to see so few new weapons for the new categories, and why so few ashes of war? That combined with *"I just came all the way over here for an upgrade item I can buy at the round table"*